


She prefers Byron

by storiesfortravellers



Category: Dollhouse
Genre: Gen, Introspection, Morally Ambiguous Character, Ozymandias - Freeform, Percy Shelley - Freeform, Poetry, Ruins
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-30
Updated: 2012-09-30
Packaged: 2017-11-15 08:17:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 234
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/525128
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/storiesfortravellers/pseuds/storiesfortravellers
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Adelle hates it when Topher quotes the poem "Ozymandias." It always makes her think of the things she'd rather not think about.</p>
            </blockquote>





	She prefers Byron

**Author's Note:**

> Written for comment_fic on Livejournal, Prompt was Adelle or Topher, "Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!" - Percy Shelley, Ozymandias

"Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!"

Adelle grimaced. Topher liked to shout that after a particularly successful job. It was not Adelle's favorite quote, but apparently Topher was so used to getting dirty looks from her that he didn't seem to catch on that the phrase was particualrly annoying to her.

He sometimes shouted, "Age of the geek, baby!" And sometimes, "King of the lab!" And, oddly enough, "Nobody puts Baby in a corner!" Adelle didn't really know where these quotes came from. But the Shelley quote always made her grimace.

And she would look around at the lush palace-like rooms around her, she would try to delight in the power she had to give or take consciousness and sometimes life. She would wonder at the breathtaking privilege of being the one in charge of the birth of truly post-human existence. But then she would remember Shelley, writing at the dawn of the industrial changes that would forver blur the borders between human and machine. And his wife, the woman who envisioned the day when people would be stitched together from parts. And when these parts would come back to their makers, hell bent on destroying them.

Adelle would remember Ozymandias, and how nobody could challenge him. And she would remember that Ozymandias' great empire was in ruins, was now just crumbles of things buried in sand.

And Adelle would indeed despair.


End file.
